Ten Minutes
by Sapfarah
Summary: The last ten minutes before Umbrella's collapse. Nothing comes at a small cost...


Ten minutes Ten minutes -- by [Sapfarah][1]   
All characters © of Capcom. Story belongs to [Sapfarah][1]   
[Visit me at Mileena's Isle!][2]

" I never thought ten minutes could last that long... " 

  
    "Ten minutes until detonation."     Yeah, right. So what's new? You struggle your way among living corpses, godawful creatures to get to the big bang only ten minutes ahead of you... Weird... this time they have increased the time lapse...     "Claire, come on!"     Leon motions at me... he always looks good when he's in a hurry and wariness. He doesn't have to tell me twice as I run at pace with him. The whole laboratory shakes.     Damn... please, no mutations...     Please...     Right around this corner we'll reach the passageway for the secret area of experiments. The door opens and our feet clang on the suspended platform. It's got to last. It has to last. Please.     One hollow hiss as the door is lifted before us- damn! A mutilated researcher, still wearing his stained, torn apron, his dull, muddled eyes direct him to us, his claws stretched ahead demand to be rewarded. Leon stumbles but the thing has to get him, it falls for an embrace-     I shoot right into its head. The pan caves in and the moves are now even less resolute. Leon moves back and stomps the head while I hit the other in the distance. Great shot, thank you Chris.     Now hurry!     The elevator is right there before us. Push the button, it's coming...     "Come on, Come ON!"     Ding!     My heart rattles. Leon pushes the button and the doors begin to shut. That ugly, hunter-like black beast screeches as its impossible speed shoots it right to us. A thick clawed hand parts the doors and I start shooting. Leon draws his gun. The shooting is answered with screeches but the elevator door suffers too.     "Let go, Claire!"     He stomps the weakened bleeding clawed hand upon the unsealed thick door and as it is drawn back with a wounded shriek, the doors finally seal. The elevator moves. Oddly, I even feel sorry for the end of that beast...     Pray nothing properly alive is left behind...     How much time? How much? Leon leans back and looks at me. I don't want to smile. Not until we are safe in the helicopter... in less than ten minutes I hope...     I never thought ten minutes could last that long...     And then, the lights inside the elevator fall and only that reddish glow flashes... on and off... that sound... that buzzing sound...     "Warning. Biohazardous gas escaping. Immediate evacuation. Repeating: Immediate evacuation."     Why do they always pick women for the recording of warning messages? I don't think it makes it any soothing...     "Leon..."     He looks at me... He still has his firm expression. His grey- blue eyes are assuring...     "Don't worry, Claire."     He says so but I can see he is worried. I am worried too Leon... but please...     This isn't the right time to worry for both...     "Biohazardous gas escaping..."     Get to the damn roof!     "Repeating: Immediate evacuation..."     "Leon..."     I'm getting dizzy. I cannot see properly and I know it's Leon's hand grabbing me before I fall.     "Claire... hold on!"     Everything is enfolded to a sickening greenish brown shade.     "We're dying!"     I know it has hit us. It's too late... the gas...     It penetrates my brain, it numbs my thought. I feel shaky, weak... just like I was when zombies bit me...     I keel and Leon is right next to me. He must be sick himself but he grips firmly at my wrist.     "No!"     He says it so steadfastly, so resolutely... I open my eyes and see his.     "Claire... please don't give up..."     What is he talking about? It's Umbrella's chemicals we are talking. Their gaseous toxins have infiltrated us... in a matter of minutes, maybe less than ten, we'll fall stiff like logs with our insides melted to toxic soup...     "I've always admired that in you Claire... that you always hanged on... even in the worst situations, you had been brave and firm... Claire..."     Of all times to pick for confessions... but I hear him. I blur as he talks.     "Back in Raccoon city, it was you who kept me going. It was your courage, your steadfastness. It was you all the way. And I thank you for that Claire. Please. Hold on."     I cry. The gas has dropped all control of my reactions. How dared he say such things?     "Leon... the gas..."     Then I see him unzipping his jacket and I see...     He has his antitoxin syringe intact.     STARS have provided us with one syringe, just in case. Mine... it got lost when that thing attacked me and pitched me off the arcade and nearly to my death. But Leon...     No. I cannot allow him to do that. He pulls my sleeve up but I resist. There is enough antidote for only one person.     "No Leon!..."     He tightens his grip.     "Claire... one of us has to make it."     I cannot let him do that to me! What right does he have to give his life to protect me? He has reasons to live as much as I do!     Foolish idiot! Save yourself...     "Leon please..."     He moves closer and holds on to me, like the day when we made love, insecurely but surely in concern and devotion. His eyes look deeply into mine as he speaks.     "You have always been stronger than me, Claire... I have always admired your strength... even if it scared me... I loved Ada because she was someone who needed me, someone I thought I was able to protect... while you..."     Don't stop, Leon... Just keep holding me. Look into my eyes and talk...     "...you have always been so strong... you practically saved my life..."     We must be getting closer to the roof... but Leon pulls me firmly into his arms and as he forces me to a fiery kiss, I wind my hands around him.     The world is collapsing around us. I feel the tremors of the building and the lights have stopped blinking a while ago. The recorded message has turned to incoherent buzzing and I almost hear the discharges of electricity...     Leon is kissing me. Nothing else matters. I want to stay here with him forever...     ...and then I jerk, startled by a sharp sting, right below my collarbone and as I look at Leon's weeping eyes, I know it's too late to bother pulling the emptied syringe from my chest...     "I love you, Claire..." he says and the door opens. We're there.     "Leon..."     He shakes but I feel the stinging pain slowly lessening on my chest and stomach. Damn fool... You stupid, despicable fool, how could you ever!...     I hear a distant shriek. I know the road is not empty. I look back but still nothing. Whatever it is, I know it will soon show up...     I rush and embrace Leon, trying to pick him up.     "Come o~"     He can hardly move. He's slipping through my hands like water and his face simpers in so much pain...     "Claire..."     I look down on him, in hopelessness.     "Shoot me..."     I shut my eyes. Let that damn thing blast all over me. I don't care. I simply don't care.     "Don't let me die like this..." he stammers.     Even his voice sounds different. Pained and pulled out in effort.     "Leon..."     He looks pleading at me and I raise my gun. I remember the feeling of the gas. It burns through your body. His jaw is trembling as he pours with sweat. Revolting sweat.     I'm sorry Leon... I can only give you a less painful death...     I look into his eyes but see nothing, just a blurry picture as I shoot...     Damn it, why can I still see the blood so well?     It pours through a hole over his heart and once his body has jerked, it falls back, awkwardly, as if he was a rag doll and I stumble on my knees next to him.     I cry and I know his attempt to save me was in vain. There is still enough gas around to efface the medicine, not to mention that shriek somewhere there. I caress his face but I don't see it. His eyes look like they're still open...     The shriek echoes again, this time closer, a few feet above the air, nearby.     When a loud explosion erupts and a heavy thud indicates that the creature is down, I still don't move.     Footsteps are running to me and they pull me... I cry and I don't want to leave Leon alone... Two of them grab me, the third checks Leon and the masked face says he's dead...     Why don't they leave me here as well?     They pull me and I run despite myself, they force me outside and on the roof, into the helicopter...     I stammer and cry while they give me another injection, damn, so many, they could have given Leon one too and he would have made it, they could have...     I killed him...     I have killed Leon, it wasn't the gases or the monsters, it was me and my bullet alone, he died at my hand and now they're giving me a vital injection...     The helicopter hovers to the sky but I'm crying, even as I fall into the unwanted sleep...     I think soon I heard the explosion of the building...     So much later afterwards?     It took it so long... so slowly...     I never thought ten minutes could last that long... 

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   [1]: mailto:sapfarah@geocities.com
   [2]: http://www.geocities.com/sapfarah.geo/



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